About

Hi, I'm Bill de hÓra, the author of this site.

Work

I'm passionate about software systems and technology, the business and process of
systems development. Although I'm primarily a
technologist, I take a keen interest in the business and use of
software - viable business models, efficient development processes, cost effectiveness and ease
of use. Quality is an overused word these days, but for me, good
software is synonomous with high quality engineering work. Part of my
"mission" is to find ways to blend technology and business and see the bigger picture.

My nominal role these days is CTO, which is more
hands on than it sounds (I still go on-call). I deal in high-end web based systems for
mobile2.0/web2.0 and product development. In the past I've worked
on Telco service and storage platforms, high throughput messaging systems, notification and internet protocols, document management, legislative systems, web servers, CMSes, n-way integrations,
technology research, client apps, event based systems, company
evaluation - all sorts of things really, for Government and private
sector. My CV isn't online, it's available on request.

I currently work for Cayova.
I don't speak on their behalf or act as a commercial point of contact.
If you have a business or press inquiry there, I can pass you onto the right
person.

Contact

Interests

I have a strong interest in using Internet standards, open source
and open formats to solve business problems When it comes to technology
I concentrate on cost-benefit, business and technical scalability, and appropriateness rather than pure
technology for its own sake.

In a past life I served on the W3C RDF Working Group and briefly
represented my previous employer on the Servlets and JSP expert groups.
A lot of what I do takes place online; my online nick tends to be dehora or sometimes bdehora. More detail about me is available via
Google.

I have a long standing interest in applied artificial
intelligence, mainly around machine learning, software agents and the
semantic web. I think with another five or so years of infrastructure
build out and especially as we generate more and more data, some of
that might become extremely useful - and none of it will be called
machine learning, software agents or the semantic web. That's how
artificial intelligence tends to get applied:). I was co-editor of the Atom Publishing Protocol, and
editor of the HTTPLR reliable messaging specification.

Reading and Writing

You can see the kind of tech books I read via flickr. I'd love to write a technical book, but can never seem to find the time to knuckle down. Some day! In the meantime my weblog journal is where most of my writing activity takes place.

Home and family

I live in Dublin Ireland with my partner Orla and our 3 children.

Background

I was born in London, and spend my teens in Galway, focusing
exclusively on sports, before moving to Dublin to go to Art College and
then back to London to live and work. I have degrees in Industrial
Design from NCAD Dublin, and Artificial Intelligence from U.
Westminster London. I've worked a gamut of jobs, from undertaker's
assistant to builder to bartender to clubs to product designer before
ending up as a research developer where I found my
vocation lay with software. In 2001 I returned to Dublin to raise my
family.